Jan. 26, 1983

Westbrook police are investigating a member of the department but wouldn’t say whom, nor confirm a published report that a patrolman has been suspended because he was arrested for shoplifting. The Evening Express quoted Portland police as saying that the patrolman was arrested outside Shaw’s Pine Tree store with $7.22 worth of cheese and ham.

Mayor William O’Gara has asked Roger Welch, president of the

Westbrook Development Corp., which O’Gara set up last year to finance a speculative industrial building, to set up a Vallee Square Committee “to help downtown Westbrook.”

Westbrook’s School Committee voted to pay $6,217 to three teachers for sick leave for “pregnancy related disabilities.” They took the city to court in 1978 and recently won. Normal pregnancy leave is unpaid under the Westbrook teachers’ contract. The case has been hanging around so long that “their kids are in the first and second grades now, ” reported Elementary Principal David Bois.

A group that calls itself Gorham CARES (for Chemical Abuse Resource Education Service) introduced its plans for fighting alcohol and drug abuse to the public Monday. They plan to do it through education. The Maine Department of Education and Cultural Services is sponsoring the program. It will hold workshops in Gorham.

Gorham Town Councilors Sherman Gray and Ernest Cressey have filed nomination papers with the town clerk for the March 8 election. Janet Waterhouse and Carol Day also have taken out nomination papers for the council, Town Clerk Brenda Caldwell reported. David Morrill has filed nomination papers for the School Committee. James Golden, a former School Committee member, also took out nomination papers for the

committee.

Jan. 27, 1993

“I’m concerned that the kids in Westbrook Junior High School are not getting what they should,” said Robert Welch, who succeeded Donald Harriman as assistant principal of Westbrook Junior High School, the person traditionally in charge of discipline. Speaking to the Westbrook School Committee he said, “I’m concerned at the violence I see. The cruelty, the punching, the hitting, the intimidation. The lack of respect for other students and the school staff. No fear of

detention -‘I don’t care if you give me detention.’ “I’m concerned. I’m worried about the kids who want to learn. The staff is being tested beyond any reasonable level. The kid sits in front of you, gives you vulgarities, gives you the finger. And it’s happening every day. It seems to be contagious.” Chairman Arnold Gaudet said Welch’s request for $8,875 to hire a person (to deal with them) for the rest of the school year will be on the agenda for the next meeting.

“I don’t know what they want for nothing!” Mayor Fred Wescot said in a moment of frustration as he discussed the state’s refusal to take over Westbrook’s Forest Street School. State inspectors have said it needs more than $1 million in work. The building was to be sold to the state for $1 as the new home of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency.

Gorham Trails Inc. has recently been awarded a Maine Conservancy Corp. grant for opening trails and building bridges on public land. The University of Southern Maine perimeter trail and the Gorham Land Trust Little River properties will be the first to benefit from the grant. The group is also waiting a decision from the town to include several abandoned roads and a section of the Cumberland-Oxford Canal at Ross Grant.

From the Gorham police log: Police investigated a loud bell ringing at the Industrial Park and found that a sprinkler system at Superior Design and Fabrication Inc. had malfunctioned. Water was observed coming from an overflow valve and was gushing from under the door to the company office. The fire department was called to turn off the sprinklers. Gorham police called Central Maine Power Co. to report a tree on fire against some electrical wires near the New Portland and

Brackett roads. CMP removed the tree.